Men’s Style Guide | The Rebirth of Adidas

In the world of sneakers and sports based street wear Nike has been number one for a long time, but this was not always so. In the 70’s and early 80’s, Adidas was the brand to beat, championed by the likes of RUN DMC and others who were never seen without there Adidas track pants and shell toe shoes. One of the main reasons that Nike has worn the crown for such a long time is the partnership they created with Michael Jordan which resulted in his Jordan brand shoes. The Jordan brand has existed for over 30 years now, but their new releases still consistently draw massive line ups at stores, and their massive demand has even created a lucrative resale market. In fact, the Jordan resale market is so large that the revenue created on this secondary market is more than double the money made by their next closest competitor.

While there currently is not a great deal of competition between the two brands due to Nike’s huge numbers, Adidas has been making a real push over the last five years to carve out their own niche and win some of the market back. Initially, Adidas started by trying to follow footsteps of the Jordan brand by partnering with existing sports superstars. These shoe lines have seen some success they have never come even remotely close to properly challenging Nike. There are a multitude of reasons for this but the simplest one is that Adidas has never been able to find an athlete who could propel their brand forward they was Jordan did for Nike. This has only continued in recent years as mega stars such as Kobe Bryant and Lebron James are both signed with Nike and have their own original shoe.

In light of these failures in the sports market, Adidas decided to try something different. Instead of creating more underwhelming signature shoes with athletes, they began to do collaborations with celebrities. The work Adidas and Kanye West have done together is well documented. Kanye just unveiled his 5^th line of Yeezy clothing at this year’s NYFW, what perhaps is more telling is that Kanye actually decided to leave Nike to join Adidas.

This switch has proved to be monumental for Adidas and has led to even more celebrity collaborations such as a very successful clothing and shoe line with Pharrell Williams as well as a signature shoe with rapper Pusha T. Adidas has also done many collaborations with other prominent clothing and street wear brands, all of which have proven to be wildly successful and have resulted in some very coveted shoes and clothing lines. Some of the more prominent collaborations include works with designer Jeremy Scott, skate brand Palace, and Raf Simmons.

While Adidas is definitely far from dethroning Nike, if their recent success continues they will definitely present a formidable challenge for years to come.

What do you think of Adidas’ most recent pieces? Do you believe they have what it takes to take over the number one spot from Nike? Let us know in the comment section down below! If you don’t think so, let us know why not!

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